Shelke's Sister
by NeverEverFaceTheDark
Summary: Part of Shelke's time in Deepground before she was saved by Vincent. Because Shelke is a brilliant character and deserves more understanding and sympathy.
1. Abducted

**a/n. Well, as this is my first fanfic EVER, (No wait! Don't go! I promise, it's not that bad:P) I'm busy trying to figure this whole thing out so please understand if something about it is suddenly terribly wrong, then it's me trying to get it right...Anyways, if you think this is crap tell me WHY you think so, so I'll learn from it. My reason to write this story? As you might have realized it's about Shelke, and for a small part about Shalua(or a very big part, I don't know yet) and for a very tiny little part about Vincent. The actual reason: there are absolutely NO fanfics about Shelke and Shalua together(not that I know of) and almost NO fanfics of Shelke before DoC. I don't know if I'll continue this...I don't know if I can...(dotdotdot) Enjoy!**

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**Abducted**

_'Stop crying__ Shelke.'_

_'__But__…__but__…'_

_'__It's all right,  
M__om just returned to The Planet.  
We'll see her again.'_

_'__We…we will?'_

Is this?

_'__Yes, of course we will.'_

Shalua?

_'__M__om said; everything in this world moves around in a circle,  
that means she'll come back one day.  
Mom wouldn't lie to us,  
right?'_

_'__R…ight.'_

_'__Right.'_

A dream?

* * *

A scream cut through the silence of the night.

"Shaluaa!!"

She jerked awake.

"Shelke?"

Who?  
Suddenly she became aware of the other people in the room.

"Shalua!! Help!  
I don't want to go!"

She half-jumped, half-stumbled out of bed. What was happening? Where was …?

"What…what's going on?"

A man stepped forward from those standing in the doorway -it seemed that they had been just about to leave. He wore some sort of uniform she didn't recognise. She heard him sigh.  
He lifted his hand and gave a sign to the men behind him.

"Is she your little sister?"

Shelke stumbled forward. Shalua could see she was crying, even in the dim light.

"Yes… But… who are you? What…"

The man cut her of.

"You will never see her again, is that understood?"

She blinked; she needed a few seconds to realize what he meant.

"What…I will never…What! What do you mean?! No!"

She dashed forwards; trying to reach Shelke, but the man caught her and kept her away from her sister. She heard him curse under his breath. _So much for the diplomatic approach._

"No! Shelke!"

The man holding her gestured to the others, they nodded and grasped the struggling Shelke.

Shelke's eyes widened.  
"Shalua! Hel...!" Suddenly, Shelke stopped moving.  
Something reflected the beam of moonlight and she could just see how it was pulled back out of Shelke's arm.

Shalua stopped. She stared at her sister unbelievingly. Then, she began to struggle even harder.

_Was Shelke...? No! **No!**  
_

"What…What did you do to her?!  
Shelke! Shelke!"

_She had to reach her, she had to!_

The man had a hard time holding on to her.  
"She can't hear you. Now stop struggling and forget you ever had a sister. That will be better for the both of you."

She didn't listen.

"No! Shelke! Where are you taking her! _Stop it_!"

One of the other men was lifting Shelke and taking her away, and she couldn't do anything about it, she couldn't stop them, she couldn't even reach them, she couldn't reach Shelke, she just _couldn't_. She wanted to scream.

Another man approached her. She saw the same shiny thing in his hand.

"Sedate this one as well, come on hurry! This is taking far too long; this girl shouldn't even have woken up!" The one who held her snapped at him.

The other one nodded and knelt beside her.  
The words were tumbling through Shalua's head. He grasped her violently moving arm and set the strange thing to it. It felt cold, and it clicked as somewhere in her mind the words fell into place.

"What? N..!"

**_Darkness_**

She woke up.  
She had a headache and something felt wrong; somehow out of place.

"What…happened?" She mumbled.

She groaned; her throat hurt.  
She tried to remember; why was she lying on the floor? Where was…?  
She gasped.

"Shelke!!"

Forgetting her headache and her painfully aching muscles, she scrambled up and ran outside.  
Desperately she searched for her sister, those men, any sign that Shelke was still there, that she could still save her.

There was nothing that indicated that any other person than she herself was there; nothing moved, no sound was heard. They were gone.

She couldn't believe it.  
She didn't want to believe it; Shelke wasn't gone, she couldn't be; she just _couldn't_ be.

But she wasn't able to deny the truth for very long, and she just couldn't hold back the tears when she realized that it didn't matter what she believed; it wouldn't change the facts.  
The sudden rush of adrenaline faded, and strength rapidly trickled away from her weakened muscles. Her knees buckled and she fell to the ground.

She hadn't cried many times in her life; Shelke had always been the one who cried and she the one who comforted her. She hadn't even cried when their mother had died, remembering what their mother told them about the lifestream and that she would return.

But now…

Shelke,_ her little sister_, was taken away, taken away from her, and she hadn't stopped it, hadn't stopped _them_. She couldn't think of a reason why they had taken Shelke. She didn't even know _who_ had taken her.

"How did they…? Why…Why did they…?

Her tears and thoughts were out of control and her mind clouded, but one thing was clear: she should have done something; she should have saved her.

"I…I'm so sorry Shelke. I…couldn't…I…I will find you Shelke, I promise."

Shalua wiped away her tears and tried to stifle her sobs. She looked up; the stars twinkled in the dark sky.

"I promise." She whispered.

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**************a/n.** **Well? What do you think? And oh, you've probably noticed that english isn't my first language... so i'm kind of struggling with words, and phrases,expressions and all that...any suggestions on what is wrong and I should change? (and IF you read this, please review, even thought you think it's REALLY BAD still do, you know, constructive criticism? (and yes I know: VERY short chapter, but this isn't my longest nor my best chapter, trust me XD)**


	2. Golden Eyes

**a/n. Yup the second Chapter, hah!!  
...uhm yeah... Thank you reviewers! XD Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou for reviewing:) Your reviews made my day go all sunny and...uhm...sunny (and it's winter so that's good). Well, they made ME very, very happy:D So thank you very much. Anyways, this chap is all about my OC character: Aure! (and of course...Restrictor, Muhahahahahahahahahahehe...he...eh...yea...) It's written very differently from the last chapter so...if you think that's bad sorry...:( but personally I think it's BETTER, but, we'll see...  
Tadatadaaaa... Enjoy! **

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_-Lifestream_

_Housed below the Planet's surface, the Lifestream is considered the lifeblood and very spirit of the Planet. This river of green ethereal energy (called "Spirit Energy") is a swell of souls of those who have lived and died in the past, a collective consciousness **(a network)**. Living things (plants, animals, and human beings) are given energy by the spirit of the Planet prior to birth, live out their lives, and then die, with the energy then returning to the Planet. During an organism's lifetime, they have experiences from which they gain memories, and once they die, their Spirit Energy returns to the Planet, taking with it the memories of the lifeform to which it had been attached. These memories in turn give rise to more Spirit Energy, allowing the Planet's spirit as a whole to grow, and the cycle of life to continue._

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**Golden Eyes **

"Stop."

She frowned at the command, but didn't slow down.  
Restrictor looked at the whirling air in front of him. She was running so fast that the only thing he could make out was a flash, every time she passed him.

"Aure."

His voice bore a warning undertone now; she could hear his anger, and his effort to keep it under control.

"Stop. Now."

She knew she should, and the restriction was tugging at her, but she_ would _finish this attack, she had worked on it for the whole day! And of course she just liked pushing the limits of her freedom. She smirked, while accelerating a little more.

"I said," his anger was obvious now; it would not be long for he would burst, "sto…"

She leaped up into the air; weapon's twirling and slashing around her. Light emitted from the heart of the small hurricane she had created and shot at several targets; tearing them apart. She hacked and kicked at invisible enemies and she seemed to move at light speed from one place to the other. Then, diving to the ground, she pierced the last target with an electrically glowing saber-sword. The target exploded.  
Panting a little, she stood, while the remains of the destroyed target fluttered around her through the air.

She sheathed her weapons and walked over to Restrictor, who didn't seem to be in the least impressed with the clearly very powerful attack she had just demonstrated in barely a few_ seconds. _

"Sir!" She saluted as the glowing, golden colour slowly faded from her eyes and their normal dark-brown tint returned. The contrast made them almost seem black; black holes sucking her powers back inside. Somewhere deep down in the darkness he could see a twinkle of mirth.

Restrictor didn't comment on the somewhat mocking gesture. He just looked at her; his eyes spitting cold fire, as if he was trying to burn her to cinders with his gaze.

Aure couldn't see his face or eyes, but she knew that his glare would have turned her to stone on the spot if that helmet hadn't been in the way. She kept her face smooth, but on the inside she grinned. It was a small triumph that she could mock him _and_ get away with it (that is, without getting killed) not many people could accomplish that. Still, she had to suppress a shudder as well; she knew that that glare indicated he would not just let her defiance go unpunished. Maybe, it hadn't been that a good idea to disobey _and_ make fun of him straight afterwards, he seemed to be in a very bad mood.

"Next time, if I say stop, you stop. Whatever you're doing, you stop. Is that understood?"  
His voice was like ice. Aure could see his whole body straining at the effort of controlling his anger. His hand twitched; she knew he was thinking of breaking her neck.

She nodded. Straightforward disobeying him was suicide. She was quite lucky already that she could anger him without immediately getting killed for it. Any other person _would_ probably get killed for it. But she was too useful to kill.

Silence followed as Restrictor kept staring at her and tried to let go of his anger. He seemed succeeding; the tense left his body and his hand stopped twitching.

She heard him hiss something through his teeth that sounded as: 'failure' and: 'how..?' before focussing on her again. "You do not use living targets in your trainings," he stated, calm again. There was nothing left of his previous rage. But there was something in his voice, something that promised that if she angered him now, she would utterly regret that. Aure noticed, but was too occupied with what he had said to register. She looked at her feet. She had known that if he discovered, he would not approve of the fact that she didn't use live-targets in her trainings, but she, fool that she was, had somehow hoped he wouldn't come to know of it.

He snorted. "Weak, I thought I had beaten that out of you. Maybe it is best to send you on another K-mission." Her heart turned to ice; not a K-mission! She was no longer ready for that! "That is not needed," she said, keeping her voice monotone, "I just find it a waste to kill soldiers we could use later in battle or on missions. Killing them to train my fighting abilities is not necessary; non-living targets serve just as well."  
"Ah, is that so?" He said in a derisive tone. "Well, next time you train, you train with live targets, and from then on, always. Have I made myself clear?"

It seemed that he had regained his normal contemptous manner.  
She nodded in agreement. You couldn't protest against an order of Restrictor when he was no more than three paces away.

"Hmpf. But I didn't come here to inspect your training. I have a mission for you, or not so much as a mission, but more of a…temporary assignment. With the new recruits, a girl has arrived that, as we expected, showed great potential after intense SND-mako experiments were carried out on her. Maybe even enough potential to become a Tsviet, but not because of her fighting abilities of course –she would not have survived any additional intense fighting research carried out on her body- but because she can dive into networks, just as you and, of course, Weiss." He stopped for a moment. "She might be even better at it than Weiss, but needs training to develop her talent. As you are the only one available who is familiar with this ability, you will be the one to teach her. This girl could be very useful, so I expect that you will protect her from any direct harm. Of course, you must give her Basic Fighting Skills training as well as make sure that she will get her mako treatments."

Aure frowned. "Why do you…I mean…girl? How old is she?"  
Restrictor chuckled. "I believe a few years younger than you when you arrived. It seems that young children are better at adapting to changes of their bodies caused by SND-experiments, because apart from her, all the other specimen died; just as happened in your case. Even though you had no _intense_ SND-research carried out on you, of course. Only Weiss seems an exception on this. Nevertheless, we don't know if the girl has any side-effects of the mako experiments similar to yours, we'll just have to see about that. But maybe her growth and aging process will also be slowed, it seems very likely. Still, as you have other abilities too, and the talent you have in common is not your strongest, it will probably differ slightly.

She stared at him; she had stopped listening the moment he had said 'a few years younger.' A few years younger? That could mean two years, or four. How old was this girl? Nine, ten? They had taken away a nine-year-old girl? She couldn't believe it; that girl would _never_ survive Deepground.  
_Sh__e_ had arrived at the age of twelve and, as result, had almost gone insane. She still couldn't believe she had actually survived the first years. The researchers must have gone crazy; they couldn't truly believe that this girl could stay alive long enough for them to study? Right?

Aure shook her head, clearing her thoughts. Then she frowned, how much time would she lose with training and looking after this girl? Restrictor seemed to expect she put a lot of time in it. But if she did, she had no time left for… A shock travelled through her. Had Restrictor found out? Had he arranged this to keep her occupied so she couldn't…? No, she calmed herself, if he had found out; he would have handled it differently. She suppressed a shudder. Very differently.

"Because you will be teaching the girl, you are probably not able to train as frequently as before. I will call you to me once I have time to supervise a training session. As you will have less training, it must be more intense when you do have training."  
Inwardly, Aure groaned, she knew what 'intense training' meant as well as when Restrictor supervised your training sessions. She had experienced it before. And had hoped she would never experience it again.

Restrictor turned around. "You will collect her from cell 478 for her first mako treatment. Do not disappoint me."  
Restrictor, still with his back at her, could not see how she rolled her eyes.  
She just couldn't help it, she had to say something.  
"Great, so now I have to be a babysitter." She mumbled.

He moved as fast as lightning. For a moment, she thought he had decided that her usefulness wasn't worth the humiliation of always keeping his anger in check and sparing her life when she annoyed him, (even Weiss could not mock him so evidently as she did, but of course he wasn't as handy as she, as he was chained to that throne of his and they couldn't let him of the leash for one minute because he was so powerful) and at long last, _was_ going to break her neck. But she didn't feel the sharp pain that indicated that such an injury had been inflicted when he seized her throat. And when he lifted her off her feet, her neck still seemed to be a whole. She concluded from this that, or: he would not break her neck, or: he would not break her neck _yet_.

"Was that a retort I heard from you?" He asked in a dangerously low voice.

She couldn't answer, as his hands cut of all the oxygen. She just hang there limply, weakly struggling for air. A few moments longer he tightened his grip, and Aure began to think that she had been mistaken with her neck-breaking theory; it seemed that he wanted to strangle her instead, but then, after what seemed an eternity, he released her, and she dropped to the floor. Gulping air, Aure tested if she could still move all of her limbs, and then glanced up.  
Restrictor was looking down on her; literally.

"Maybe I must add something to that last sentence," he said, "Do not disappoint me, _or else_."  
Then he turned around and stalked away.

When Aure was absolutely sure that Restrictor had gone, she stood and grimaced. Her neck hurt. She was quite sure that in a few minutes it would be all red and swollen. Sometimes, she did curse that urge of hers to challenge him, she snorted, a stupid thing to say anyways: 'so now I have to be a babysitter,' how very childish. Sometimes she had the feeling that her mind hadn't realized it was older than her body, and it began to think like a naive little thirteen-year-old again; intend on playing the dangerous game of 'pushing the limits of one's freedom,' a game with very painful consequences.  
Careful not to press too hard, she tried to touch her throat. She had had worse injuries, so she was used to the pain, but when she looked at her fingertips, they were red. Blood? She frowned; Restrictor must have done that on purpose. She smiled bitterly, probably just deep enough to leave a scar, so it would remind her that The Restrictor is not to be trifled with.

She sighed. There was no choice than to do what Restrictor wanted. There was never a choice really, than to do what Restrictor wanted. She might be too useful to be killed; Restrictor knew ways to convince people, and she didn't only mean the restriction. Even though you tried to forget during the day-and succeeded- being Basic Trained by the Restrictor himself was something that kept haunting you in your nightmares. It was a miracle her mind hadn't shattered in a thousand pieces back then, or actually, how her _body_ hadn't given in to the harsh trainings _and_ all the experiments and research carried out on it. Probably the experiments had in fact saved her, without the inhuman strength she had attained through them she would have surely died.

She shivered. At least she wouldn't have to do live-target training for a while. Restrictor had been right; she was becoming weak, soft, her mental shield protecting her from any emotions was in a state of crumbling. If she would have to splatter through the blood of fifty soldiers she'd better repair it quickly. Restrictor wouldn't be happy to see her throw up because she had just killed some sort of insignificant soldier acting as a live-target.

She picked up her weapons -she had dropped them when Restrictor had attacked- and went on her way to cell 478. She wasn't looking forward to encountering the girl. She knew that a nine-year-old: Could. Just. Not. Be. Trained. - Or survive, for that matter. Deepground did not accept the weak, it swallowed them, and a young girl, probably homesick and afraid, _would_ be swallowed, the moment Deepground knew she was in its mouth.

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**Would you say this was a cliffhanger...? Nah I don't think so, and even if it was i'm not gonna apologize(because most people do O.o) 'cos you don't write a cliffie for nothing right? so why apologize...? Anywayz it isn't so why am i rambling on about it?? never mind, but what i'm gonna tell you now is:  
**

_VERY IMPORTANT SO READ:_ Aure comes from Aureus which means: Golden, or 'like gold' or 'made of gold' or 'colour as gold' in Latin. Explains the (weird?) name a bit. I chose it because she'll become the instructor/observer of Shelke's progress just as Argento is an instructor/observer (of everyone) and Argento is latin for: silver.  
Oh and yeah her eyes turn golden when she uses her 'powers, abilities, talents,' just like Shelke's amber/blue eyes. And Yup some of their 'powers, abilities, talents' are very alike. (I hope ive made that clear in this chapter :P)

_(And the first italic part about the lifestream is from wikipedia, it makes things alot more clear)_


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